Burdens
by musicalsoul
Summary: Some battles are harder to fight than others. -SasuSaku oneshot, a bit AU-


_**A/n:**_ It's random. It's been lying about for so long I didn't know what to do with it, so now, here it is.

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_**Burdens**_

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The minute he had uttered "Chidori Nagashi," she knew she was done for.

She looked down. Through the strands of grimed and haphazardly cut pink hair, she could see the stem of silver blooming out of her chest. _Odd,_ she thought. She'd been stabbed by a sword before—and that experience was painful. The entryway of the sword had burned cursedly, and the agony had been unbearable.

Now, she could feel close to nothing. The area around her heart was becoming numb, bit by bit. Only a few seconds ago, the sword had been grasped by Chidori's crackling lightning fingers. She remembered Captain Yamato being pinned against a rock with this very same sword. _The blade of Kusanagi_, he called it.

_How odd,_ she thought again.

The world seemed to have stopped completely. It was like she wasn't in place with anything at all—synchronization had been totally lost. The rainclouds did not offer any sense of comfort. Her hands were limp, tired. Her chakra system was strained from overuse, making the clenching of fists almost impossible.

Lifting her head was a daunting task, but she achieved it anyway. The fire of willpower had not been doused just yet.

"Perfect hit, as always."

The dark eyes looming out of the cloudy afternoon remained impassive, and the hand at the hilt of the sword remained steady. Nothing ever could shake him, could it? She hated that. Hated the fact that nothing could get him unsteady and off guard. It was all taken in with that cold, cool demeanor. She _hated_ it.

Her teeth grit roughly against each other, and she grasped the sword, only to be shocked again by the Chidori lurking upon the metal.

His eyes narrowed as she fell back slightly. He could never understand this doggedness of hers; this vast reserve of hidden energy that kept her going. It was a lost battle. Why not surrender from the beginning just to make things easier? Why flounder and fight under the power of someone who was inevitably superior?

"You never learn."

Even the words seemed to pass through a sheet of ice.

She shifted, temporarily glad for the numbing effect of the Chidori. "Maybe...I'm not the one...that needs to learn."

There was silence, then. Each leaf could be heard within the placidity of the clearing. The rustling of the underbrush that lined the forest was a clear cut sound, a language of whispers that none understood.

Sakura flinched when she felt something cold land on her head and slide down her cheek. The droplets increased until both of them were standing in torrents of unforgiving, frigid rain. It wasn't much of a difference—her body temperature had been steadily slipping down to clammy for a while now, so the rain didn't affect her lower body. It was her face that was the problem. It was burning. Maybe it was a fever.

Predictably, his composure didn't change. His coal-black hair was plastered to his pale face now, making the voids he called eyes stand out of his countenance. She wondered how he didn't freeze to death. With those garments, he was half-naked anyway! Didn't he feel the chill and bite of the rain?

Other thoughts were running through the mind of her adversary at the moment.

He had mixed feelings towards the rain. Sometimes, it provided a cathartic method of relieving himself of guilt and whatever emotions he had bottled up so firmly that it was hard to believe he had them in the first place. But there were moments, like now, when the rain did not provide an sort of outlet or freed him of a burden.

On the contrary. Something inside him was twisting uncomfortably at the sight before him, though the did not show anything of the sort. With one firm movement, he drew his hand sharply backward. The slide of sword on flesh was a sound that he had heard countless times, and this should have been no exception. Instead, the hairs on the back of his nape stood up pin-straight when Sakura slid to her knees before him.

She gasped for breath, trying to inflate her withered lungs with oxygen. She only managed to aggravate her wind passages, causing her to cough. Numbly, she watched the dribble of crimson mix with the dirt and rain on the ground. It was coming from her, wasn't it?

How unlucky.

She had to pull her mind together, remember her medical knowledge. Perhaps it wasn't too late. Her hands, trembling, reached up to where her wound was. She could feel the parting of the skin. It certainly was not a shallow stab. Gathering what meager chakra she had left, Sakura forced it into a healing jutsu, succeeding in closing the wound until only a scar was left.

The pain in her palms was unbelievable. Every blood vessel, every tenketsu, was stiff and rigid, flashing with the agony of exertion.

But, she was alive. That was what mattered.

Why had he not finished her off yet?

_Hah...he's not even looking at me_. She discovered that by tilting her head against the rain. Although the thunderous precipitation blurred her vision and made it hard to see, she could discern his figure. It was only a few steps away from hers. He was standing stock-still, and his stare had been taken off of her. She wasn't quite sure what he was even seeing.

Contrasting sharply with his exterior was what his mind was saying. It was small, annoying, human, little part of his mind, but it was still part of it nonetheless. _What a loathsome thing_, he thought, musing on the ideas the remainders of a conscience exercised on him. There were many scenarios floating around that dank, dark niche of his mind, but he refused to view them or give them second thought.

"...this time."

Her ears strained to catch his words beyond the pounding rain. "What?"

"I will let you go...this time."

"Why?" The spite bubbling up inside was frightening, even to her. He had left them stranded, thrown away; as if they were pieces of a building that the architect realized he no longer needed. Did he have any idea what Naruto had done, how the boy had trained, ever since he had taken the high road and left Konoha?

She gripped a fistful of soil with more strength than she thought she had.

"Don't have the courage to deliver the final blow?"

And suddenly, they were eye-to-eye. Her breathing stopped.

His eyes burned into hers, giving a message that was never to be spoken aloud. He leaned forward, and stopped only when the tips of his sagging forelocks brushed her face. She could feel his breath fanning across her face gently; it send a shiver trickling down her spine. How could he be so controlled? His lips barely moved as he articulated two very short words.

"It's pointless."

The air before him shimmered, the rain creating a distorting veil between them. She was so close she could feel the spray of water coming off of him. The jutsu completed its cycle, and he was gone. Sasuke Uchiha was gone.

_As always. _


End file.
